About the sublimation of Si surfaces vicinal of {111}

The aim of this paper is to report experimental results on the sublimation of Si{111}, studied by reflection electron microscopy (REM) in a large range of temperature (1060°C < T < 1300°C). The most important result is that on vicinals of {111}, the velocity is a linear function of the distance between the steps (up to several μm). Such a behaviour would imply, according to the BCF theory, a mean displacement of atoms of the order of several μm, whereas conventional calculations yield some hundred Å. The existence of a very mobile layer of adatoms on (1 × 1) {111}Si and its effect on the BCF surface diffusion model is discussed.